198 Thyroid and Liver Glycogen 
The Diastase Content of the Liver and Blood Serum of Thyroid-Fed 
Animals. 
Opinions concerning the function of diastase in various animal fluids 
or tissues and alterations of its concentration in certain pathological 
conditions are quite controversial. Studying the behavior of the liver 
diastase in diabetes, Bang!® reported that the glycogen-free liver of de- 
pancreatized dogs showed no excessive diastatic action. He considers this 
fact as an indication that diabetes depends not on excessive destruction 
but on deficient formation of glycogen. In the same type of experi- 
ments, Zegla!® found a slight decrease of the liver diastase; but Hinsel- 
mann,” on the contrary, found an increase. Though Zegla reported that 
the diastase content of the liver increases in phlorhizin or phloretin glyco- 
suria, the slight difference in the results of his experiments seems still 
to be within the technical error or physiological variation. Wohlgemuth 
and Benzur!’ reported that phlorhizin, phloretin, or epinephrine injection 
causes an increase of the diastase content of the kidneys, while the di- 
astase content of the liver and blood serum shows no decided change. 
Wohlgemuth!® demonstrated also that fasting, change of diet, increase of 
pancreatic activity by hydrochloric acid or secretin have no effect upon 
the diastase content of the blood. Knowing that epinephrine, piqgire, 
and other nervous influences are without action upon the blood diastase, 
Moeckel and Rost?® are of the opinion that the blood diastase is a product 
of the metabolism of the cells, which has no special significance and serves 
no function in the organism. Macleod and Pearce” reported that in an 
etherized animal after death there is usually, though not always, an ac- 
celeration in the rate of glycogenolysis of the liver. Studying the gly- 
cogenolytic power of the liver after splanchnic stimulation, the same 
authors’ concluded that modifications in the glycogenolytic activity of 
the liver do not depend on changes in the amount of diastase, but on 
changes in the conditions under which a constant amount of this fer- 
ment is acting. Scaffidi?? demonstrated that the liver of frogs poisoned 
with phosphorus has a glycogenolytic power as high as the normal liver. 
Bang* asserts that the liver of Rana esculenta contains a large amount of 
15 Bang, I., Beitr. chem. Physiol. u. Path., 1907, x, 320. 
16 Zegla, P., Biochem. Z., 1909, xvi, 111. 
17 Hinselmann, H., Z. physiol. Chem., 1909, 1xi, 265. 
18 Wohlgemuth, J., and Benzur, J., Biochem. Z., 1909, xxi, 460. 
19 Wohlgemuth, J., Biochem. Z., 1909, xxi,,381. 
20 Moeckel, K., and Rost, F., Z. physiol. Chem., 1910, Ixvii, 433. 
21 Macleod, J. J. R., and Pearce, R. G., Am. J. Physiol., 1910-11, xxvii, 
341. 
22 MacLeod and Pearce, Am. J. Physiol., 1911, xxviii, 403. 
23 Scaffidi, V., Biochem. Z., 1915, Ixviii, 320. 
24 Bang, Biochem. Z., 1913, xlix, 40. 
